Why is this medication prescribed?
Formestane is an enzyme inhibitor used as an antineoplastic agent.
Antineoplastics (or "antitumor antibiotics", or "noncovalent DNA-binding drugs") are drugs that inhibit and combat the development of tumors.
Formestane has shown antitumour activity in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. However, this medicine is not yet approved by the US FDA, but clinical trials are currently being conducted to develop a topical form of formestane.
Mechanism of action:
Formestane is a medicine that is known as an aromastase inhibitor and it prevents the production of the female hormone called oestrogen. It does this by inhibiting the aromatase enzyme which is responsible for the conversion of androgens to oestrogens.
Cancers form when some cells within the body multiply uncontrollably and abnormally. There are two types of cancer: solid cancers where a lump forms e.g. the bone, breast, muscle, or brain cells, and subsequently divide and multiply abnormally. The second type are leukaemias and lymphomas where the blood cells divide and multiply abnormally.
Other characteristics of cancer besides uncontrolled growth include the ability of these abnormal cells to invade other tissues next to them or to break away from the original site, travel through the blood or lymph, and establish a new cancer at a different site of the body. These are called metastases.
On the other hand, breast cancer can be classifed into oestrogen sensitive and oestrogen insenstitive cancers. Most breast cancer is sensitive to oestrogen.
Sensitive cancer cells need oestrogen to stay alive and removal of oestrogen from the body or stopping any circulating oestrogen getting to the cancer cells can be effective at controlling or killing hormone senstive breast cancers.
The production of oestrogen in postmenopausal women requires an enzyme called aromatase. Therefore as formestane blocks this enzyme it will decrease the levels of oestrogen in the body. Because there is less oestrogen to feed the cancer, the growth and the spread of the cancer is inhibited.
Dosage and using this medicine
What special precautions should I follow?
What should I do if I forget a dose?
What side effects can this medication cause?
What storage conditions are needed for this medicine?
In case of an emergency/overdose